


The Tide

by he_niece_of_lucifer



Category: Megamind (2010)
Genre: Basically just the moment Roxanne and Megamind fall in love, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Falling In Love, Minion ships it, Trust, Vulnerability
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:41:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29776335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/he_niece_of_lucifer/pseuds/he_niece_of_lucifer
Summary: Megamind likes to sing, and Roxanne overhears him. Despite his trust issues, he opens up to her about it, and the two of them bond over music from Megamind’s childhood.
Relationships: Megamind/Roxanne Ritchi
Comments: 12
Kudos: 47





	The Tide

In the eight days Megamind had with his parents, they would sing to him almost constantly. With the end of the world as they knew it looming above their heads, ugly and empty, it was the only thing they could do to entertain their small child. They didn’t have much spare time; after all, their scientists had predicted the pull from the black hole would be inescapable in only four full rotations of their planet. They knew they couldn’t build a big enough pod for all three of them to escape, but they could at least try to save their newborn child.

Megamind, at the time, had picked up the language very quickly. Even if his parents hadn’t programmed his little pod to play educational videos about their language and culture, he still would have remembered the songs they sang to him. Songs about the stars, about the gods and deities that lived there, and about the sea. He loved the songs about the sea most of all.

His mother would sing one part of the song, and his father would sing the harmonies, and Megamind would listen with wide eyes as his parents trilled and whistled and hummed deep in their chests. It was a combination of their primary voices and their secondary ones which allowed them to sing in such a haunting way. It was constant, and it was soothing to him. It was the only part of them he would be able to keep.

Eight days into his life, he was put in a pod with a pacifier and his Minion, and the two of them were sent off towards a planet which hopefully Megamind could survive on. There was no epic explosion, no violent crashing sounds as the planet was destroyed. It simply slipped into the void, and ceased to be. Megamind watched it disappear.

Thirty years later, he still remembered the songs. Sometimes, if he was alone, he would sing to himself in a nearly dead language only he and Minion understood. It felt terribly intimate, singing. After all, it was the only piece of his childhood, of his planet, which he had left. It felt wrong to let anybody else hear him, like desecrating something sacred. Something holy.

And even with that thought in mind, he was not perfect. He was bound to make a mistake eventually.

Roxanne was tied to a chair in the broadcast room with Megamind, still unconscious from the knockout spray. He had taken the bag off her head earlier than usual, as there was no real reason to leave it on. It was an accident, the sort of action he didn’t even think about until it had already caused a problem for him.

As he got everything set up, he sang. Quietly, passively, but he sang nonetheless.

It was a song about crashing waves on the shoreline, forever moving and changing, yet eternal in their beauty and power. The song was one of reverence and respect for the most destructive force of nature on his planet. His mother’s favorite.

The lyrics didn’t translate perfectly into English. There was no word in English for the action of a wave journeying from the heart of the sea, all the way to the shore, only to crash into the earth and dissipate. The word in his native language, in M’ega, was a specific trilling sound and a low click, hardly something he could spell with the letters in the alphabet. 

He ended up singing almost all the way through that song before he realized Roxanne was awake.

“Megamind,” she breathed. It sounded like it might have been a question, like she didn’t quite believe it was him. His heart seized up in his chest, but he turned to face her. There was no mockery in her eyes. In fact she looked like she might start to cry.

That was-

Not something he wanted.

“What- was that?” She asked, leaning forward a little bit in her chair. It made Megamind nervous, the way she seemed genuinely interested.

This was a private thing that she had just so happened to witness. It was not meant for human ears, not meant for anyone except for him, and the better part of his brain told him that it would only end up hurting him to continue this line of dialogue with Roxanne.

But a smaller part, the part of him which still trusted and loved, wanted desperately to explain.

And normally he would ignore such pointless longing, but-

The way she was looking at him, like he had done something meaningful-

“It’s a song,” he blurted, “it’s- just something I do when I’m working. Sorry. It’s weird. I know it doesn’t sound like music you normally hear, but-“

“Megamind, that was  beautiful .”

He stared at her for a moment, expecting her to burst out laughing or something like that, but she didn’t. There was no humor in her face, only awe.

“I- thank you?” Megamind felt his face go hot when she smiled at him a little bit. “It’s- I’m not very good at singing, Minion does a much better job-“

“Minion can do that too?” Roxanne looked delighted. “That’s so neat! How does it work?”

“He and I both have... I guess what you’d call two different voices? One is a primary voice, the one I talk in, and the other is for making noises unique to both of our species. So that’s how I can- you know, the chirping and trilling and...” he trailed off, waving a hand. Normally he wouldn’t be so open, but she was looking at him like she cared. Nobody ever looked at him like that.

And the fact that she wasn’t afraid, the fact that she didn’t mind yet another reminder of how alien he really was-

It felt too good to be true. But this was Roxanne; she was never cruel. Even if she could be brutally honest at times, in most cases her honesty was justified.

The way she looked at him now, was, in its own way, a bittersweet cruelty; she looked in awe of him, with no trace of fear or disgust souring her expression, and he could almost allow himself to enjoy the moment.

“Those sounds are words, then? What do they mean?” She gazed up at him, her powder blue eyes the same color as the sky, almost like a piece of the heavens was framed inside her irises.

“It’s a song about the ocean,” he said, leaning back against the control panel behind him. “My- I used to hear it a lot, when I was a child.”

“Oh, did your parents sing to you?”

A little pang struck his heart. His long term memory was flawless, providing a vivid and painful memory of his mother and father’s faces as they sang to him, smiling at him like he was their entire world.

“Yes,” he said, his voice low. Roxanne must have seen the hurt in his face, despite his efforts to hide it, because her expression softened.

“What happened?” She asked, eyebrows furrowed up in sympathy. It struck him that she was, in fact, a reporter, and that anything he said to her had the potential to end up on the news, broadcasted to the entire city. If anyone figured out his vulnerabilities, he would be at risk of countless villains from neighboring cities trying to take advantage of his weakness.

Roxanne tilted her head at him, just slightly, her hair falling out from behind her ear. He was foolish, and Roxanne Ritchi was beautiful. What else was new?

“My home planet- it was very, very far from here.” He felt his chest constricting.“There was a black hole. My people had no chance to escape.”

“But... you escaped.”

“I did. And so did Minion. But only because my parents were brilliant, and knew they only had enough time to build a very small escape pod.”

“How old were you?” Roxanne watched his face intently, though he didn’t understand why.

“I was eight days old.” He looked down at the floor, finding that he was on the verge of tears. “And then I ended up here.”

They shared a silence while he pulled himself together. It was ten minutes past the time they were supposed to begin, but Megamind wasn’t in the mood to fight with Metro Man anymore. No promise of witty banter and decent swordplay could change that. So with a quiet sigh, he walked over to Roxanne and untied her. She looked back at him as he did, watching his movements.

She understood, though. And when he walked back around to the front of her, intending to return to the control panel so he could call Metro Man, Roxanne reached out and touched his wrist. She didn’t hold him there, not physically, but at the brushing of her fingertips against his glove, he found himself frozen in place.

“Megamind?” She asked, sounding a little breathless. He looked back to her. “Can you tell me the words?”

“I’m sorry?”

“The words to the song.” She pulled her hand away. Even though she was free to go find Minion to take her home, she was still seated in her chair. He doubted he would ever fully understand her. “I want you to tell me.”

He stared at her for a moment before realizing that she was serious, that she wanted to know more, and that-

God. Megamind hadn’t known he could love her more than her already did.

Years ago, he had translated the lyrics, albeit very roughly, into English. The meaning and sound changed some, but the feeling was intact. He never thought he’d actually get the chance to share it with someone, though.

“I can, if you want.”

“Please.”

And so he began to speak, more of a poem than a song, the words flowing like water from his lips.

“The tide, turbulent and fearless, rises and falls with the pull of the three moons. The earth, gods and people watch her dance in awe. So dangerous are her steps, which are also obsolete. She runs from the heart of the sea to the edge of the land and leaps, and for a moment she is the most destructive force in the universe. The next moment she is gone, only to run and jump again, and again. The light of the life star paints her rose and lavender and gold. She is the envy of the gods and the bane of mortals, made to strike both love and fear in the heart of man. Forever she will stride, forever she will leap.” Megamind stopped, and looked at Roxanne, who at some point had taken his arm again. She looked happy.

“It’s beautiful,” she murmured, gazing up at him. “Please tell me more.”

And he did, the two of them sitting together as Megamind spoke to her, and eventually even sang for her, deep into the night. Minion, upon entering to check on Sir, found him seated on the floor with Miss Ritchi. There was noise, like talking-

Minion realized quickly that Sir was  singing \- a love song no less- to Miss Ritchi. And of course, being a clever fish, he had seen this coming for some time. But it was still a nice sight to witness, the two of them no more than a foot apart, Miss Ritchi holding Sir’s hand as he sang to her. Minion knew the words to this one by heart.

“... and even in remorse, in pain, in a place I cannot reach you, your stars will always light up the dark.”

With a smile, he left, and closed the door.


End file.
